You know the deal, the more some folks learn about a topic, the more shortcuts/slang/acronyms/initials/technical jargon can be tossed around. I’m here to help you understand those sometimes mysterious words and phrases, thus – Wine Words Demystified!
This week’s phrase is Residual Sugar
According to Karen MacNeil‘s The Wine Bible:
Natural grape sugar that remains in wine because it has not been converted into ALCOHOL during FERMENTATION. Wines that taste dry can nonetheless have a tiny amount of residual sugar in them. Winemakers often leave small amounts of sugar in wine to make it seem rounder and more appealing (sweetness has a slight fat feeling to it). Wine producers are not required to list residual sugar contents on labels.
In other words, residual sugar (sometimes abbreviated as “RS”) is a measure of how sweet a wine is. The higher amount of residual sugar that remains in a wine after fermentation, the sweeter the wine, and vice-versa. Residual sugar is usually measured in grams per litre (g/l, or g/L), or us Americans as a percent. To give you some context, even the driest wines contain at least 1 g/L, while any wine with over 45 g/L would be considered sweet.
Other posts to check out!
- Wine Words Demystified: Wine Diamonds (enofylzwineblog.com)
- Wine Words Demystified: Corked (enofylzwineblog.com)
- Everything You Need To Know To Enjoy Sparkling Holidays! (enofylzwineblog.com)
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